The Nav Yuvak Mitra Mandal, which has been making Ganpati idols for the past 28 years, decided to mould an idol from sweets like jalebi, ladoo, modak, malai sandwich and others this year.
Known to make their own unique Ganpati idols every year with a motive to spread the message of an eco-friendly festival, residents of Kothari Niwas in the Mulund West area have made a 9kg Ganesh idol from sweets.
The Nav Yuvak Mitra Mandal, which has been making Ganpati idols for the past 28 years, decided to mould an idol from sweets like jalebi, ladoo, modak, malai sandwich and others this year.
"It is not only the 2.5 feet idol which has been made from boondi ladoos and mawa sweets but the 6.5 feet makhar is also a structure of sweets like halwa, jalebi and malai sandwich. At least 55kg of sweets have been used," said Rakesh Somaiya, founder of the mandal.
The whole idol was conceptualised by Naresh Rathod and Vijay Patel, who are residents of the same society.
"A night prior to Ganesh Chatruthi, we started making the idol in our society. Over 25 members of the mandal are keeping our eco-friendly idol tradition alive. For more than two decades, we have been coming up with new innovate ideas to design our idols," added Somaiya.
The amount of sugar used in the sweets is minimal. After the idol is immersed in water, sweets attached to the makhar will be distributed among the devotees as 'prasad'. They will fresh enough to be eaten even after 15 days.
The mandal made an idol out of 3,500 kitchen utensils last year. On the day of immersion, the idol was dismantled and the utensils were distributed among devotees.
Other than their own unique idols, they also bring clay idols to spread the message of environment protection.
Another group, known as the Srinivas Ganeshutsav Mandal, made an idol from sports accessories last year with the theme 'Lets Play'. The accessories were later distributed among children.
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